At the Market

Today (Aug. 24th) I've officially been in Sudan for 1 month! As I cycled back from B. with Vicki and Grace this afternoon, I wished I could bottle up my happiness and send it home for all of you to taste what it's like to be here. On Friday afternoons, we've been taking the afternoon "off" and going into B. to browse around the market and have lunch. This week we met up with a new friend, M. a young lady from a different tribe in Sudan who is here working with an NGO in B. She's about my age and is here all by herself, far away from her family. We had such a fun time with her. It was great having a fluent Arabic-speaker accompanying us around the market. Here's a typical Friday afternoon:

We start out by having a cold soda at one of the little shops that has a big fridge run by a generator. We always go to the same place since we know the family and we always leave our bicycles there the whole time we're in the market. We sit down and then there's always random people we know who walk by and come to greet us and chat--always a barrage of M. and Arabic and English greetings all around. You're never sure what language to use with who there!

Then we go to lunch at one of the little "restaurant" shops and have fried goat meat and a bean dish with bread. They always cook the same stuff and we always go there because we like how they do their goat and there actually isn't too many other options! Today we ate goat and discussed Sudanese marriage practices with M. It was very interesting.

Then we wander around the market and buy our bread and look for vegetables. Lately there's been lots of maize (see my last post!) and sometimes okra and occasionally a few cucumbers or eggplants will appear. The other day we found some eggs which was very exciting. It's always fun to see what we can find.

Today was especially fun because we had M. along and she could speak Arabic for us. I've been getting by with a few Arabic phrases I learned in Nairobi like "How much is this?" and understanding the numbers they say back to me. I've even been able to barter a couple times with my Arabic numbers although sometimes not very successfully! =(
We've been looking for canned tuna in the market for weeks and I finally learned how to ask for tinned fish so tried that this week and we found it! Vicki got some curtains sewn for her tukul by a man with an ancient Singer sewing machine in a stall in the market. I've been dying to take pictures in the market for weeks and finally managed to get a few today, which I'll share with you when I get to Nairobi next time. I also got a marriage proposal--my second actually. Today it was a young man from a northern tribe called the Fulata and the translation I got from M. was "He said, 'This Fulata would like to marry you.'" I laughed and said "No, thank you" and Grace took over in her role as my mother (which everyone assumes her to be) and told him he'd need 500 cows to which he replied "I'd pay even more." I kept laughing and decided it was time to leave the shop immediately.

Speaking of laughter, there's always plenty of it. I noticed today that every interaction M. had with anyone involved lots of laughter and banter. I really love this about Africa. I remember the same thing from Sierra Leone. Every-day life is all about the people you bump into and talk and laugh with.

Then we sometimes go to a little tea stall where northern ladies sit and make little cups of shai (tea), coffee, or carcade (hibiscus tea). This has to be my favorite thing about going to the market. All of the above are sooooo yummy. They are also loaded with suger! The cups are little and they usually put 3 tablespoons of sugar in the bottom! I love sitting there sipping the strong, sweet stuff and chatting with the other ladies.

Always a colorful experience--never a dull moment!